The article focuses on research by Autar K. Mattoo of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory, Purdue University and the Italian Research Agency which showed that planting tomatoes in fields of hairy vetch activates some of the metabolic pathways and genes which make tomato plants more vigorous. Hairy vetch are moderately winter-hardy legumes that are often grown to stabilize roadbanks or to serve as forage for grazing animals.